LC 5015 J^ 

.B7 ^^ 

1921 __ 
Copy 1 



Workers' Education 



AMERICAN AND FOREIGN 
EXPERIMENTS 




By 

ARTHUR GLEASON 

of the 

Bureau of Industrial Research 

289 Fourth Avenue 

New York 



Fifty Cents a Copy 



Copyright, 1921, by 

The Bureau of Industrial Research 

289 Fourth Avenue, 

Neiv York 



FEB 12 1921 



Workers' Education 



AMERICAN AND FOREIGN 
EXPERIMENTS 




By 

ARTHUR GLEASON 

of the 
Bureau of Industrial Research 

289 Fourth Avenue 
New York 



Fifty Cents a Copy 



UC5 



oi5 



.3-r 



7.\ 



Acknowledgment for patient detailed help in preparing this 
pamphlet is due to Algernon Lee, J. M. Budish, Ida Glatt, Walter 
W. Pettit, Alexander Fichandler, George Soule, Rose Schneider- 
man, David J. Saposs, Abraham Epstein, Henry de Man, Frank 
Anderson, Harry Dana, Fannia Cohn, A. D. Warbasse, Charles 
Beard. This does not make them responsible for the shortcomings 
of the phamplet. 



[2] 

©CU6083.36 



Table of Contents 

Chapter I 



PAGE 



WORKERS' EDUCATION 5-1 5 

Object. Group I ° 

Object. Group II " 

Object. Group III 9 

Method. Groups I and II 9-iO 

Method. Group III lO-ii 

TEACHERS "-12 

TEXT BOOKS 12-13 

FUNDS 13-14 

THE INSTITUTION i4-i5 

AMERICAN EXPERIMENTS .16-38 

Ladies' Garment Workers 16-18 

Cleveland Garment Workers . . 18-19 

United Labor Education Committee 19-22 

Amalgamated • 22 

The Rand School 23-24 

Pennsylvania 24-26 

Washington, D. C • • • ^^ 

Chicago Classes 26-27 

The Boston Trade Union College 27-30 

Amherst 3° 

The Cooperatives 30-32 

Seattle ......' 32-34 

Other Experiments 34 

Porto Rico 34 



PAGE 

Labor Education Bureau 35 

Wisconsin 35"36 

One Appeal 36-37 

An Outline for Education: an "omnibus" syllabus .... 37 

Pioneers 38 

Chapter II 

BRITISH EXPERIMENTS 39-48 

The Need 39 

Rules 39-40 

WORKERS' EDUCATIONAL ASSOCIATION 40-44 

Tutorial Classes 40 

Cost 41 

Books 42 

Attendance 42 

Effect on teachers and students 42 

A class 43-44 

RUSKIN COLLEGE 44-45 

Attendance 45 

Cost 45 

Doubts 45 

LABOR COLLEGE . 45-47 

Control 46 

Attendance 46-47 

SUMMARY 47-48 

Chapter III 

BELGIAN WORKERS' EDUCATION 49 

GERMAN EXPERIMENTS 50 

PUBLISHED INFORMATION 5i 

WHAT TO READ 52-55 

SAMPLE COURSES 56-61 



Chapter I 
WORKERS' EDUCATION 

THE way a group of grown persons best educate each other 
is in the method used by Socrates and his friends. It is 
the way of endless discussion centering on one subject. 
It is probably the hardest work in the world. The results are al- 
ways amazing. A grown man discovers he is beginning to grow 
again. Endless discussion about one subject can not maintain it- 
self on words. It dies away unless it feeds on knowledge and finally 
interpretation. It reaches out for facts and then for the meaning 
of them. In modern terms, this Socratic method means a class 
of from five to thirty, who read books, listen to talks, and ask ques- 
tions. They take to themselves a like-minded teacher, who is a 
good fellow, and together they work regularly and hard. This is 
the heart of workers' education — the class financed on trade union 
money, the teacher a comrade, the method discussion, the subject 
the social sciences, the aim an understanding of life and the re- 
moulding of the scheme of things. Where that dream of a better 
world is absent, adult workers' education will fade away in the 
loneliness and rigor of the effort. 

But there is no one road to freedom. There are roads to free- 
dom. So workers' education will include elementary classes in 
English, and entertainment for the crowd. But the road for the 
leaders of the people will be straight and hard. Only a few thou- 
sand out of the millions will take it. It is a different, a new way 
of life to which the worker is being called. 

In the United States there may be one kind of education for a 
particular racial group. There will be regional solutions, local 
experiments, experiments in a given industry. Our infinite variety 
of life and our wide spaces will demand a multitude of experiments. 

[5] 



The peasant and cooperative background of Denmark results 
in a workers' education of the folk highschools, which is possible 
perhaps for certain Middle Western groups in our country, but 
which is not universally possible. 

The healthy and balanced growth of the three-fold labor move- 
ment of Belgium — the trade unions, the labor party, the coopera- 
tives — and the compactness of the Kingdom enable the workers 
to make a neater classification of needs and to federate the solu- 
tions into a single central national administrative body, which 
would break down among our mountains or seep away upon the 
prairies. 

The salty individualism of the British, with their fundamental 
unity of consciousness, permits them to make untidy unrelated ex- 
periments In workers' education, all moving in the one direction, 
although unaware of its goal. A loose but deeply grounded schol- 
arship of the young university men finds ready alliance with the 
instinctive drive of the workers toward a fuller life. 

No such casual unprogrammed adventure Into the universe Is 
possible with our practical pragmatic American business unions. 
We shall demand clear statements of where we are going. There 
will be dozens of experiments, but each will keep a ledger of exact 
results. 

Already the American experiments have been of many kinds. 
They have been state-aided, university-aided, independent of state 
and university. 

There has been education for labor given by wealthy benevolent 
trustees, as in the Cooper Union. There has been the Rand School 
on a party basis. There have been schools organized on the basis 
of the consumers, as In the schools of the cooperatives. 

There have been schools for the groups of producers : a single 
union, like the International Ladies' Garment Workers' Union; 
groups of unions as in the United Labor Education Committee; 
the Central Labor Body of a city, as In the Boston Trade Union 
College; the State Federation of Labor, as in Pennsylvania. 

[6] 



Much of the early work of American labor education will con- 
cern itself with elementary and secondary courses in such subjects 
as English writing and speaking. Because of the racial and immi- 
gration problems, there is no general level of adult attainment. 
Labor groups differ in ability to read and write, and to read, write 
and speak English. Until this deficiency is met, there can be but 
little useful work done in such courses as history and economics. 
As long as immigration brings a new group each year, classes in 
English, elementary mathematics and so on, will be necessary. 
These classes absorb a large proportion of the energy of American 
workers' education. Already many of these adult elementary 
classes are taught in public buildings by public school teachers. It 
is probable that this sort of education will be increasingly taken 
over by public authorities. This will leave the business of work- 
ers' education to the workers. The objects, methods and materials 
of what is meant by workers' education will be outlined in the next 
pages. 

Workers' education, as it spreads, is of course vitally concerned 
with facts in the social sciences. It is concerned with the collec- 
tion, classification and interpretation of these facts. This means 
that labor education requires labor research. One of the con- 
tinuous and all-powerful Influences in workers' education is the 
newspaper. Labor education requires the labor paper. So as 
fast as labor education grows, there will spring up, out of the same 
root, labor research and the labor newspaper. Research Is one 
of the sources of supply for education. The daily, weekly and 
monthly paper is one of the methods of imparting education to the 
workers. The labor movement will remain inside the squirrel- 
cage of wages and prices, until it employs all three — research, edu- 
cation, and the newspaper. 

Charles Beard once said: 

"The modern university does not have for its major interest 
and prime concern the free, open and unafraid consideration of 
modern issues." 

The labor group is beginning to demand a free, open and un- 
afraid consideration of modern Issues In institutions of Its own. 

[7] 



Object. Group I. 

What is the object of workers' education? One object is to 
train promising youths, who are already officials, or are potential 
leaders, or are the most ambitious of the rank and file. Workers' 
education will train them in the technique of their particular union 
and industry. It will train them in the relation of that union and 
industry to society and the state. This kind of workers' education 
gives the technique of leadership. It includes courses in labor law, 
the use of the injunction, workmen's compensation, industrial and 
health insurance, unemployment. Federal agencies of inspection, 
employers' use of a secret service, duties of the walking delegate. 
Perhaps eventually place can be found in the curriculum for a course 
or courses dealing with aspects of the problem of management and 
production. Although it is inevitable that present interest in these 
questions should be slight, it seems equally inevitable that the lead- 
ers among the workers must more and more equip themselves with 
knowledge of the technique of their industry on both its administra- 
tive and its operative side. And this can be directly encouraged if 
an expository and critical course on managerial procedure is offer- 
ed. The content of a course on modern personnel administration 
would, for example, come to have a wide appeal and a great prac- 
tical value. As the subject of "workers' control" demands a knowl- 
edge of the functions of foreman, superintendent and technician, 
and a knowledge of the whole administrative area, it will become 
increasingly necessary for the advanced labor leader to study the 
shifting "frontier of control." Once the institution is under way, 
there will be no difficulty in selecting students for this first group. 
Only those will be admitted who have gone through certain courses. 
At first, the leader will have to select by guess work. He will use 
his judgment, admitting those "who are sufficiently interested and 
willing to try." They will drop out quickly, under the more inten- 
sive and stiff regime, if their equipment is faulty, and their devo- 
tion languid. 

Object. Group II. 

A second object of workers' education is to give the more eager 
of the rank and file a social or civic education. These courses will 

[8] 



show the workers how they are governed. They will deal with the 
economic system under which they work, and the nature of the 
world in which they find themselves. They will include general 
cultural courses in history, economics and literature. The thing 
aimed at is a world view. The favorite courses remain history, 
economics, literature, because they are an interpretation of man in 
his world. Once the full circle is drawn, then, into a segment is 
packed the consideration of a single subject, such as the Greek Com- 
monwealth, or the Agrarian Problem of the Sixteenth Century. 
Education is "the effort of the soul to find a true expression or 
interpretation of experience, and to find it, not alone, but with the 
help of others, fellow-students." By showing to a man his place 
in the long process and the scheme of things, education helps him 
to live the good life. Workers' education simply registers the de- 
sire of a group to continue growing, even after the members are 
twenty-one years old. Where two or three are gathered together 
in freedom and equality, and continue to meet regularly, and dis- 
cuss one subject till the facts of it have been lifted into interpreta- 
tion — there is education. It is "the stimulus of a group of like- 
minded students." 

The rank and file will not be interested in this kind of labor 
education for many years. The most alert and energetic men and 
women will alone be attracted. Labor education is education of a 
tiny minority, the most promising of the youth. 

Object. Group III. 

A third object of workers' education is to reach the rank and file 
with education for the love of it, with semi-entertainment with a 
cultural slant. Its aim is mass education. 

Method. Groups I and II. 

Methods in workers' education depend on objects. If the ob- 
ject is to train leaders and to give the ambitious minority of the 
rank and file an intensive education, then the method will be that 
of the small class and hard work. Education for these groups is 
for those only who feel a desire, and have some sense of the direc- 

[9] 



tion they wish to travel. The experiment will begin with three or 
four in the class, and with meager funds. If correctly grounded, it 
will grow slowly. Only at the end of some years will the experi- 
ment show results large enough to attract outside attention and 
public ceremonies. No short cuts and no brass bands will lead 
to workers' education of this intensive kind. This education is 
self-education. It is not by chance and happy blunder that work- 
ers' education rediscovered the ancient and correct method of teach- 
ing — the Socratic quiz, the question-and-answers discussion. The 
workers recaptured this method through necessity. The miner and 
railwayman, adult and having knowledge of life, would not submit 
to the autocracy of orthodox teachers. A "grown man" or woman 
will not sit silently each week for several years while a lecturer or 
an orator holds the platform. Each one of the group insists on 
contributing. University extension courses, night schools, Cha- 
tauquas, civic and church forums, mass meetings with star speakers, 
concerts, theatricals, are not the method of labor education of this 
kind. Labor education is intensive work on one subject carried 
on by a small class (5 to 30). 

Opportunities for actual industrial responsibility are given by 
the duties of shop chairman, shop committee, and by the organiza- 
tion of cooperative productive establishments. This practice is of 
course an essential of education. 



Method. Group III. 

The method of reaching the rank and file, as yet unawakened, 
is by semi-entertainment. Various devices for stirring desire for 
education will be used. Bribes and lures will be applied. A beau- 
tiful actress will recite Shakespeare. A full orchestra will find "The 
Lost Chord." Moving pictures, lantern slides, charts, budgets, 
maps, and other graphic representations, will be used. Three- 
quarters of the time will be used in attracting people. The other 
quarter will contain some bit of information. Out of these mass 
efforts will come individuals, asking for help in the rudiments of 
mathematics, in the English language. Classes will be formed to 
meet the two-fold need of those who never had an elementary edu- 

[10] 



cation, and those who find that an elementary education has left 
them uneducated. 

Mass education by mass semi-entertainment will contribute to 
solidarity and enthusiasm, which may later lead to intensive edu- 
cation by the class-and-discussion method for a small minority. 

The question is asked: 

If young people received a full and good elementary and sec- 
ondary education, would there be need of workers' adult educa- 
tion? The answer is that the desire for adult education grows 
keener as the elementary education is more widely spread and more 
thorough. A well-instructed group of workers, twenty-five years 
old, will be eager for adult education. An illiterate group, or a 
group numbed by drink, will be hostile to class work. Also, a 
group of half-educated youths, fed on dogmas and preconceived 
notions and picturesque phrases dealing with catastrophic changes 
and millenial hopes, will be superior to education, to careful anal- 
ysis, to surveys of fact. 



TEACHERS 

In Britain the success of workers' education was due to men like 
R. H. Tawney, J. J. Mallon, Arthur Greenwood, Alfred Zimmern. 
The type is neither the smart brisk young tutor who patronizes 
nor the bearded professor who is dogmatic. The type is that of 
humble-minded scholarship set in charming democratic personality. 
American colleges do not as yet produce this type in numbers. The 
workers' teacher is a rare person. The only method as yet used 
for finding him is to bring normal school and university-trained 
teachers into contact with labor groups, and to winnow out the 
teacher who catches hold. The balanced qualities, which give clear 
exposition and suffer heckling gladly and call out group discussion, 
can only be revealed in practice. No technique of normal school 
training alone will produce the man who can interpret experience 
to a labor group, although something can be done throu\gh normal 
classes to show the prospective teacher how material may be simply 

[II] 



prepared, and presented in the method of group discussion. The 
suggestion has been made that a local association of teachers could 
call a conference of themselves and local trade union leaders on 
workers' education. If both elements cooperated, classes would be 
an immediate result. One American teachers' union numbering 
i,ooo was called on for teachers for workers' education. Two per- 
sons were available. But two are a beginning in a new work. 

One experiment in workers' education has found that teachers 
in secondary schools were more successful than university profes- 
sors. In this experiment, the language used was simpler, the un- 
derstanding of the group mind was more complete. 

The teacher will avoid mass meetings, advertising what he is 
going to do. The little class seems lonesome after a mass meeting. 
He will make his appeal by pamphlets, bulletins, syllabi of courses. 
He will speak to every sort of workers' meeting. He will speak to 
trade unions' locals, district conferences, state federation confer- 
ences. He will begin his experiment small in one place. If success- 
ful, it will do much of its own advertising and publicity work. Its 
students and graduates become the promoters of workers' educa- 
tion. A regular bulletin or leaflet or magazine organ will gradually 
become necessary. 



TEXT-BOOKS 

It is not by chance that workers' education altered the subject- 
matter, the content, of the teaching. Fresh from first-hand experi- 
mence of danger, monotony, and the workings of the industrial 
system, labor rejects the abstractions of academic political economy, 
and the purple chronicle of kings in history. They want to know 
the adventure of the common man down the ages. This means 
re-writing the text-books. The workers are forcing the experts to 
rewrite them. The secretary of the British Labor College writes 
(in November of 1920) : 

"Those experts. We've been battling with ithem for three months 
now, trying to bully or cajole them into Simplicity of Language, Aboli- 



tion of Technical Treatment, Definlteness in the Statement of Establish- 
ed Results of their Sciences, Conciseness. We want a book on their sub- 
jects of 150 to 200 pages. They want to supply a self-contained library, 
mainly technical, with ill-defined co-ordination of results, and precious 
little relation to a continuous unfolding of natural social phenomena." 

Text books are needed in all subjects — in technique of leader- 
ship, civic culture, in American industrial history, in trade union 
and labor history, in political history, in economic geography, and 
so on. Text-books for American workers' education have not been 
written. Sound scholarship, simple statement, clear English, cheap 
price, are the requirements. Until men like Charles Beard write 
them, they will not be written. 

Pamphlets are Immediately needed for workers' educational 
groups on such subjects as "The Open Shop Campaign," "Unem- 
ployment," "Labor Education and What It Could Mean," "What 
Is a Trade Union College?" "How to Start a Trade Union Col- 
lege." 

A few American books and pamphlets have been published which 
have grown out of an. understanding of the need. Such are Mary 
Beard's "A Short History of the American Labor Movement," 
Everett Dean Martin's "The Behavior of Crowds," "Trade 
Unionism In the United States," by the late Robert Franklin Hoxie. 

FUNDS 

The Ideal way would be for the trade union to vote the funds. 
In England this did not happen. Philanthropists gave the money 
for Ruskin College. The Workers' Educational Association has 
been supported by the universities, the public educational authori- 
ties, and the trade unions, and some of the workers have always 
been suspicious of the university influence. The Labor College was 
and is entirely financed by the Labor movement. 

In America the United Labor Education Committee derives its 
funds from afHlIated unions. The unions underwrite the educa- 
tional fund. Members of the unions receive the education free. 
Other experiments have charged a nominal fee to the student, 
such as $2.50 or $5.00 — In some instances, returnable at the end 

[13] 



of the course. In other cases, scholarships are established by 
unions for niembers unable to pay even a nominal fee. The Inter- 
national Ladies' Garment Workers' Union donates the funds, and 
members may attend courses free of charge. This union has 132,000 
members. A small union will probably either have to share in 
somebody else's experiment, or institute classes with an admission 
fee. The lesson will be slowly learned that working class edu- 
cation costs in money and time; especially, that it must pay its 
way in point of adequate compensation for teachers. It is idle to 
hope that a permanent teaching staff of the right calibre can be 
built on the tag ends of busy people's time, for which a nominal 
fee is paid. This kind of educational work requires special ability, 
extended preparation and follow-up. On the other hand, success- 
ful experiments in labor education have been made by the equal 
and enthusiastic early sacrifices of both workers and teachers. 
Only gradually have the experiments been able to take over the 
full time or even a remunerative half-time of the teacher. All 
such effort in the beginning is dependent on a fund of patient 
idealism. As the need and the appeal become clearer, it is prob- 
able that a group of teachers will respond in this country as they 
have elsewhere. 

THE INSTITUTION 

The institution is needed — a home where the effort will be fo- 
cussed. A room in a trade union building, or set of offices, is the 
best place. The Seattle Workers' College meets in the Labor 
Temple. But "any old" meeting place will be used — a public 
school (not the best place), a back-room of a social club, a rented 
room in a business building. Labor education is as yet in part de- 
pendent on the department of public education. The Ladies' Gar- 
ment Workers in New York use elementary school buildings for 
their unity centers, one high school for central classes, and public 
school teachers (for English classes — not for the other classes). 
In Philadelphia their work is carried on in public schools. The 
Boston Trade Union College uses high school buildings. The 
Chicago classes use, in part, teachers and buildings of the public 
schools. In Los Angeles what began as a trade union movement 

[14] 



In education Is "now completely under the control of the Board 
of Education." This cooperation, except in such elementary sub- 
jects as English, with public school authorities may mean that a 
censorship and a control are exercised, or else that they may be 
Imminent as a threat with the same results on freedom of discus- 
sion as if they were exercised. 

The Executive Council of the A. F. of L. appointed a committee 
to investigate workers' education. Their report showed they had 
little conception of the nature and the need. After stating that In- 
struction and discussions must be unhampered, and that boards of 
education and teachers should be fellow-servants of the public, they 
say that labor and other liberal elements must secure effective rep- 
resentation on the boards of education. 

"Meanwhile classes under union auspices will serve the addition- 
al purpose of demonstrating the existence of a demand which the 
schools are failing to meet. But such classes should be considered 
a stop-gap. The sound solution is a progressive board of educa- 
tion, responsive to the public." 

This naive failure to distinguish between the existent institutions 
of the political state, and the experiments In industrial democracy 
made by the workers cuts the tap root of labor education. 



[15] 



AMERICAN EXPERIMENTS 

Ladies' Garment W^orkers. 

The International Ladies' Garment Workers' Union as a union 
has been "the pioneer in education in the labor movement of 
America." But there had been many efforts before its experiment. 
There had been a Workers' School, the Workers' Educational 
League, the Thomas Davidson School, the Bread Winners' or 
Wage Earners' College, the Jewish Workers' League, the Work- 
men's Circle. And since 1906 the Rand School of Social Science 
had been preparing the ground in New York. The Rand lectures 
and classes had reached many persons in the clothing industry. 

The idea of the Ladies' Garment Workers was not to initiate 
the education which would make trade unionists "more efficient and 
better workers, but rather the kind of education that would make 
them more intelligent workers and citizens." The educational 
committee decided "to stress the necessity of labor education with- 
in the Trade Union movement," and thus to "enable workers to 
use their organized economic power intelligently and effectively." 

A start was made when the 19 14 Cleveland Convention of the 
International Ladies' Garment Workers' Union appropriated $1,- 
500 for educational activities. The International cooperated with 
the Rand School of Social Science, where special classes were or- 
ganized for members. In 19 15, the Waist and Dress Makers' 
Union, Local 25 (a local of the International), of New York City, 
organized its own educational activities and concentrated them in 
a public school building under the name of Unity Center. The 
work was started in cooperation with the New York Board of Edu- 
cation. The understanding w^as that the Board of Education was 
to assign teachers of English for special classes organized for 
Garment Workers members only. In addition to that, lectures 
were arranged on different subjects. Lecturers were paid by the 
Union. 

At the Philadelphia Convention of 19 16 the question of labor 
education was more seriously taken up, and it was decided that the 
International appoint a committee of five, and that a fund of 
$5,000 be appropriated at the disposal of this committee, to be 
spent for educational activities. ^The committee accepted the plan 

[16] 



of the Waist Makers and opened a few Unity Centers, thus laying 
a foundation for the Workers' University, which was opened in 
the Washington Irving High School in New York. The work was 
directed by the committee with Miss Juliet Stuart Poyntz as edu- 
cational director. To the Boston Convention in 191 8, the Educa- 
tional Committee presented a report of its accompHshments, which 
was heartily endorsed by the delegates assembled. The Central 
Executive Board was instructed to spend $10,000 yearly to carry 
on the work of education. 

At present the International supports the Workers' University 
in the Washington Irving High School. The business agents, other 
officers, and members of the rank and file of the local unions attend 
classes. The International has appropriated about $15,000 a year 
for this University. 

An important branch of educational activities is the Unity 
Center. At present there are seven Unity Centers in Public 
School Buildings in the different parts of New York where mem- 
bers reside. In each Unity Center there are classes in English, of 
elementary, intermediate, advanced and high school grade. The 
teachers are assigned by the Evening School Department of the 
Board of Education. At each Unity Center there is an Educa- 
tional Supervisor also assigned by the Department of Community 
and Recreation Centers of the Board of Education. These local 
supervisors give weekly physical training. The International ar- 
ranges independently a series of lectures and lessons on the Labor 
Movement, Trade Unionism, and Economics. The rest of the 
curriculum deals with Health, or subjects of more cultural interest, 
such as Literature, Music, Art, Educational Films, and talks on 
vital subjects. Every instructor prepares an outline of the lessons 
which contains a statement of facts on the subject he is going to 
talk about, and the period ends in question form. Copies of these 
outlines are placed in the hands of the students, and they follow 
the lecturer according to these outlines. Afterwards these outlines 
are sent to Local Unions outside of New York, advising them to 
arrange lectures according to their contents. In New York the 
Unity Centers have about 1,200 pupils. These Centers are a 
method of getting large groups of workers to receive instruction in 

[17] 



subjects of importance. The Workers' University in New York 
has an attendance of about 300. There is no cost to the student. 
Practically all students who register complete the work. In Phila- 
delphia, 350 garment workers are enrolled as regular students in 
the classes. 

Fannia M. Cohn is secretary and Alexander Fichandler is educa- 
tional director of the Educational Department of the International 
Ladies' Garment Workers' Union. The address is 31 Union 
Square, New York. 

Cleveland Garment Workers. 

For the Garment Workers in Cleveland the Cleveland Board 
of Education pays for four instructors. The Garment Workers 
exercise complete jurisdiction over the planning of courses and the 
selection of teachers. The center of the educational work is the 
Headquarters of the union. Courses were begun on November i, 
1920. One room is used for English classes. A large auditorium 
serves for gymnasium practice, motion pictures, lectures and large 
meetings. 

Courses are planned to proceed from the elementary to the ad- 
vanced, on the basis of six weeks to a term, recognizing the defi- 
nite psychological value which the short term has in stimulating 
interest. 

Wherever possible, students are registered for courses which 
they are qualified to take because of previous study, reading or 
lectures. In no sense can this be confused with the limitations 
imposed by academic institutions, as the desire to know is sufficient 
reason for granting admission to a class. Students are guided in 
their choice, by recommending such preliminary courses as will give 
them the necessary background for a subject in which they may be 
interested. 

There is no stipulated budget for the Educational Department. 
The salaries, plus the cost of stationery, printing and postage, rep- 
resent the average monthly expenditure. In the first year in planning 
for the extension of the work, the education department is de- 
pending on volunteer effort. For instance, several new courses will 

[18] 



be added next term. The professors, Oberlin College men, have 
offered to conduct these without remuneration. 

Publicity is secured through newspapers, printed announcements, 
verbal announcements at meetings, dodgers, posters and personal 
communications. 

An Educational Committee representing two members from each 
shop, assists in shaping policies, advertising classes, and conducting 
the follow-up work in the shops among students who have dropped 
out. The Committee meets every two weeks, and one Sunday 
afternoon meeting during the month is arranged for students and 
other members of the Union. 

The address is Workers' University, 1024 Walnut Avenue, 
Cleveland. 

United Labor Education Committee. 

The initiators of the United Labor Education Committee in 
19 1 8 were the United Cloth Hat and Cap Makers, at whose call 
all the conferences preliminary to the establishment of the Com- 
mittee were held. Among the organizations affiliated at the be- 
ginning were the Amalgamated Clothing Workers of America. 
They have recently separated from the Committee, in order to 
establish their own educational department. The organizations 
now affiliated to the United Labor Education Committee are : 

Amalgamated Sheet Metal Workers, No. 137. 

Associated Teachers Union. 

Bakery and Confectionery Workers Union (3 locals). 

Beltmakers Union. 

Central Federated Union of the City of New York. 

Cleaners and Dyers Union. 

Fancy Leather Goods Workers Union. 

Fancy Leather Goods Workers Union, Jersey City. 

Hebrew Actors Union. 

Hebrew Butchers Union. 

Hebrew Teachers Union. 

International Fur Workers Union. 

Jewelry Case Makers Union. 

Jewelry Workers Union, No. i. 

Knitgoods Workers Union. 
- Library Employees Union. 

[19] 



Mineral Water Workers Union. 

Iron and Bronze Workers Union, No. 275. 

Painters, Decorators and Paper Hangers, No. 261. 

Retail Grocery and Dairy Clerks Union. 

Suitcase and Bag Makers Union. 

Teachers Union. 

United Cloth Hat and Cap Makers of N. A. (14 locals). 

United Hebrew Trades. ' 

United Neckwear Makers. 

Waiters Union, No. i. 

Women's Trade Union League. 

Workmen's Circle. 

Ladies Waist & Dressmakers Union, L, 25 L L. G. W. U. — Cooper- 
ating Member. 

Amalgamated Ladies' Garment Cutters, L. 10. 1. L. G. W. U. — 

Cooperating Member. 

The impulse for the Education Committee came from the needle 

trade unions, but carried to other unions until about twenty became 

affiliated. The United Labor Education Committee arranges for 

the affiliated organizations, 

1. Lectures at the local union meetings. 

2. Classes for the general membership, for shop chairmen, actiive mem- 
bers and officials. 

3. Strike Service (making use of the leisure of strikers for education 
and recreation). 

4. Slack service (for the unemployed during industrial depression). 

5. Forums (4 weekly in New York). 

6. Recreation Centers, Drama, Educational Moving Pactures. 

7. The Committee helps the locals to arrange their benefit perform- 
ances at the lowest cost and so as to make them more educational. 

8. The Committee keeps in close touch with the labor educational or- 
ganizations in this country and abroad. 

To join the LJnited Labor Education Committee an organization 
has to pay an affiliation fee of $15 and monthly dues as follows: 

Locals with a membership up to 300 pay $5 per month; over 
300 and not over 1000, pay $10; over 1000 pay $10 for the first 
thousand and $5 for every additional thousand or fraction thereof; 
no local to pay more than $40 per month. 

Every local union has equal rights and obligations in the U. L. 

B.C. 

[20] 



Every local union elects one delegate to the Educational Council 
which takes supreme charge of all the work between national con- 
ventions of the union; and three delegates to the Annual Con- 
vention which elects the Executive Board, 

The Executive Board and officers elected by the annual conven- 
tion are responsible to the conventions and the Educational Council. 

In the first eighteen months, the expenditure on salaries was 
$6,511.85. By June of 1920, the total appropriations, made by 
the affiliated organizations, was $17,450. And even on this sum, 
a balance was still due of $5,850. 

Sixty forums have been conducted, with an attendance of 13,200. 

In forty-eight locals, 203 lectures and five concerts were given 
with an attendance of 27,500. 

The classes were arranged for that small portion of member- 
ship which is ready for intensive educational work. A class con- 
sisted of twelve consecutive weekly lectures, with the exception of 
the English classes which were given three times a week for about 
the same number of weeks. During the first season two classes in 
English and one in the History and Appreciation of Art were 
given; several other classes were started but they were wrecked by 
the attitude of the Board of Education. During the second season 
five classes in English, two in Economics, one in Industrial History 
of the United States, one in Correction of Accent, one in Socialism, 
one in the History and Appreciation of Art and one Class for 
Officials. These classes were repeated in the third season, with the 
addition of two classes for the public school teachers who had affi- 
liated with the Committee by this time, — the classes for the teachers 
were Contemporary Problems, and How to Teach Economics in 
Labor Colleges; the first had a regular attendance of fifty and the 
second of twenty-six. A small fee was charged to the students 
consisting of $2 and $5 respectively. Both classes were given with 
the cooperation of the New School for Social Research. The aver- 
age attendance of the other classes was about fifteen per class. 
Classes held directly in the headquarters of labor organizations 
were especially successful both in the sense of regularity and size 
of attendance. 

In the season of 19 19 — 20, the Rand School of Social Science 

[21] 



cooperated with the United Labor Education Committee, by re- 
ceiving into the Rand School classes at reduced fees'several hundred 
students assigned by the Committee. The classes were partly 
regular classes, and partly special classes organized for the pur- 
pose. The subjects covered were American history, general mo- 
dern history, civics, elementary economics, socialism, trade union- 
ism, elementary natural science, and various grades of English. 

The lectures at the local union meetings are given in a series of 
three and four, so that a subject is dealt with in a way to further 
substantial knowledge. 

The Committee have practically divorced their activities from 
the public school system, and have concentrated their work in the 
headquarters of the affiliated organizations. The classes, for in- 
stance, are held in union headquarters. The forums are conducted 
in the headquarters of the Workmen's Circle in four places. 

Classes reach a very small minority. The commercialized 
"show" and moving picture reach a vast majority. The recrea- 
tional activities of the Committee, connected as they are with lec- 
tures, are intended to combat the influences of commercialized 
amusement. These recreational activities of the Committee are 
intended, not as mass entertainments, but as new methods of mass 
education. The Committee believe they can be used to make 
audiences read, register for classes, and take the first step in serious 
educational work. J. M. Budish, Chairman of the Committee, 
writes: "If the educational movement is to become a mass move- 
ment so that it may have a real influence in shaping the thought of 
the working masses, the only way by which it can be accomplished 
is by using some new methods of mass education." 

The Committee accepts no financial contributions from individ- 
uals nor from any but labor organizations. 

J. M. Budish is chairman of the United Labor Education Com- 
mittee. The address is 41 Union Square, New York. 

Amalgamated. 

For several years the Amalgamated Clothing Workers of Amer- 
ica have been active in workers' education. They cooperated with 
the United Labor Education Committee and with the Rand School. 

[22] 



More recently they have created Independent educational work of 
their own in lectures and classes. Their program has been partly 
put into effect in New York, Rochester and Chicago. 

The 1920 Report of the General Executive Board of the Amal- 
gamated Clothing Workers of America included special reports on 
education. Of the Rochester work it was reported: 

"Instead of trying to put over a program which had worked well 
elsewhere, it was decided to spend some time getting at the mind of the 
Rochester members themselves. At local and shop meetings, and with 
many individuals, the subject was discussed and a preliminary program 
was drafted based exactly on what members appeared to be asking for." 

The director of the National Educational Department of the 
Amalgamated Clothing Workers of America is J. B. Salutsky, 31 
Union Square, New York. 

The Rand School. 

The Rand School of Social Science in New York is "an autonom- 
ously organized educational auxiliary to the Socialist and labor 
movements of the United States. It is owned by the American 
Socialist Society. Its affairs are conducted under the control of an 
annually elected Board of Directors and by a teaching and ad- 
ministrative staff." 

In the years 19 18-19 and 1919-20, the annual number of its reg- 
istered students was over 5,000. 

There is a training course for making workers efficient for the 
Socialist Party, the trade unions and the Cooperatives. This course 
is taken by a group who give full time for six months. Many of 
these as graduates become labor secretaries, organizers and editors. 

There is also a training course designed especially for residents 
of New York, in which students attend four or five sessions a week, 
evenings and Saturday and Sunday afternoons, for twelve months. 

The Rand School was established in 1906 by a trust fund of the 
late Mrs. Carrie Rand, and a contribution from her daughter, the 
late Mrs. Carrie Rand Herron. The greater part of the capital 
has since then been withdrawn, and the income has thus been dim- 
inished. Tuition funds now meet from 40 to 50 per cent of the 
Rand School's expense of maintenance. Profits from the Rand 

[23] 



Book Store provide for another lo to 20 per cent. There are 
many thousand dollars a year to be raised by contributions. The 
tuition fee is $4 for each 12-session course and $7 for each course 
of 24 sessions. 

The social sciences (History, Politics, Economics) and English 
and public speaking, form the chief part of the curriculum. 

Arrangements are made with the International Ladies' Garment 
Workers' Union, the Amalgamated Clothing Workers of Amer- 
ica, the Workmen's Circle, United Automobile Workers, Amal- 
gamated Metal Workers, and International Jewelry Workers, for 
courses for their members. 

The workers of the clothing industry and the Rand School have 
always been in close contact. The educational movement of these 
advanced workers (with their large Jewish membership) has re- 
ceived considerable impulse and furtherance from the Rand School. 
The industrial structure of the clothing Industry, the high intelli- 
gence and character of its membership, the absence of labor polit- 
ical graft among its officers — all are illustrative of both the causes 
and the effects of adult education on the workers. But no swift 
"morals" and "lessons" can be drawn for the American labor move- 
ment in general. The Jewish mind, which dominates the clothing 
industry, is alert, eager for instruction, open to Ideas. Through 
suffering, the Jewish group has learned solidarity. So these ex- 
periments of the International Ladles' Garment Workers' Union, 
the Amalgamated Clothing Workers of America, the United Labor 
Education Committee, and the Rand School of Social Science, must 
be considered as a special group, whose progress In labor education 
is more advanced than that of other groups in the country. 

Algernon Lee is educational director of the Rand School. The 
address Is 7 East 15th Street, New York. 

The Department of Education 

of the Pennsylvania Federation of Labor. 

The Pennsylvania Labor Education Committee was organized 
at the Altoona convention of the Pennsylvania Federation of Labor 
in May, 1920, An Executive Committee of fifty labor represent- 
atives throughout the State was elected at that time. J. R. Copen- 

[24] 



haver (machinist) and A. Epstein were elected Chairman and 
General Secretary, respectively. Shortly afterward the Committee 
was converted into the Department of Education of the Pennsyl- 
vania Federation of Labor, with President James H. Maurer, act- 
ing as Advisor. Although the convention passed several resolu- 
tions urging the inauguration of educational work in the State, no 
definite fund was appropriated for this work. 

Despite the lack of money, the 1920-21 season opened with reg- 
ular trade-union colleges in Philadelphia and Pittsburgh and labor 
classes in Allentown, Bethlehem, Harrisburg, Lancaster, Pen Argyl 
and Reading. In Philadelphia and Pittsburgh the Labor Colleges 
are under the control of local executive boards, composed of rep- 
resentatives of the different unions. The instructors are recruited 
from the more liberal and sympathetic local university professors. 
The courses given in these cities include : economics, history of the 
labor movement, industrial history, literature, public speaking, and 
English. A number of additional courses are being established. 
The work is financed mainly by contributions from the local unions. 
In addition, the students are charged $2.50 per course in Phila- 
delphia and $2 per course in Pittsburgh. 

In the smaller towns the Federation's Educational Department 
organizes circuits composed of five or six nearby cities, and stations 
a full-time lecturer in that district. This instructor gives one lec- 
ture a week in each of the circuits. This course consists of twenty- 
six weekly lessons covering: the evolution of industry, the social 
and economic consequences of the industrial revolution, the pro- 
blems of city, state and national government as a result of the in- 
dustrial changes, the legal position of the corporation and trade 
unions, the reforms proposed through social legislation, the history 
and present status of the labor movement; and a few lectures are 
devoted to modern movements for Industrial progress, such as : the 
single tax, the co-operative movement, socialism, etc. 

Each course lasts for two hours and consists not only of lectures 
but also of readings, digests or reports on readings by students 
before the class, as well as quiz and discussion. The work in 
these towns is financed entirely by the Central Labor unions and 
local unions. No fee is charged the individual student. The res- 

[25] 



ponse of some local unions has been exceedingly encouraging. A 
number of locals have contributed as much as $ioo each. In the 
beginning most classes met in school rooms, but gradually one by 
one these rooms were refused by the different school boards, al- 
though not a single charge was ever brought against any of the 
students. Instructors, etc. A few classes, however, still meet In 
school rooms. 

Early In November, 1920, there were nearly 300 men and 
women in Pennsylvania who were attending the classes regularly. 
The average attendance In Philadelphia and Pittsburgh was about 
15, while in the smaller towns the attendance Is usually about 20. 
More than 80 per cent of the students are members of trade unions. 
Other features such as additional lectures, meetings, etc., are plan- 
ned by the General Secretary. The field Secretary Is A. Epstein, 
box 662, Harrlsburg, Pa. 

W^ashington, D. C. 

The Trade Union College of Washington, D. C, Is under the 
trade unions of Washington and vicinity. The classes are one and 
two hours in length, part lecture and part discussion. Courses are 
offered in English, music, dancing, literature, mathematics, mechan- 
ical drawing, economics, history of the labor movement, elementary 
law, current labor questions, vocational education, Industrial hy- 
giene, cooperation, democratic control of industry. The registra- 
tion fee Is $1. For a course of ten lectures, a fee of $3 is charged. 
Active membership in the college is confined to local unions affi- 
liated with the A. F. of L. The Board of Directors consists of 
thirteen members — comprising the trade union officers of the col- 
lege, seven trade union members elected by the college, two mem- 
bers elected by the instructors of the college. 

The secretary and registrar of the Trade Union College is Mary 
C. Dent. The college is situated at 1423 New York Avenue, 
Washington, D. C. 

Chicago Classes. 

A joint committee of the Chicago Federation of Labor and the 
Women's Trade Union League of Chicago in cooperation with the 
Board of Education holds educational classes for men and women. 

[26] 



The enrolment fee is one dollar for each class, and this is refunded 
if the class is attended regularly. The Chicago classes have not 
been injured (in attendance or interest) by free lectures, given by 
other educational institutions, nor by extension courses of the uni- 
versities. At present three classes are being conducted successfully 
— the public speaking class, filled to capacity; the parliamentary 
law, and essentials in English. The element in attendance is com- 
posed in equal proportion of Americans and the foreign-born. The 
foreign-born are Russian Jews. The students number 75. 

Information on these Chicago classes is obtainable from the 
Women's Trade Union League of Chicago, Room 11 24, 64 West 
Randolph St., Chicago. Alice Henry is secretary of the Educational 
Department of the National Women's Trade Union League. 

The Boston Trade Union College. 

The Trade Union College under the auspices of the Boston 
Central Labor Union was organized shortly after the end of the 
world war to help prepare the workers of New England for the 
role of increasing importance which labor is to play in the new 
social order. It was the first college to be established by the entire 
central labor body of a city, and this plan inaugurated in Boston 
has since been followed in Washington, D. C, in Seattle, and in 
other cities. 

The Board of Control is made up chiefly of representatives of 
the Boston Central Labor Union, and thus is ultimately responsible 
to a body of delegates representing some 80,000 workers. There 
are also five representatives of the instructors, but as almost all the 
students are trade unionists and as most of the representatives of 
the teachers are members of the Teachers' Union and delegates to 
the Central Labor Union, that leaves the control well in the hands 
of the Central Labor Union itself. 

The expenses of the college have been borne entirely by the trade 
unionists themselves. The instructor usually receives $100 for each 
course of ten lectures. For this course each student pays a fee of 
$2.50. Unless, then, there are forty students in a class the class 
can not be self supporting; and since in many subjects it seems wise 
to keep the number of students small, the college must necessarily 

[27] 



depend on other contributions besides the fees. These contribu- 
tions have come from subscription lists handed around in the 
various local unions on which countless small sums, often of only 
10 or 15 cents apiece, have been subscribed. The trade unionists 
have preferred not only to control their own college but to pay for 
it themselves. No financial help from the State Board of Educa- 
tion, from University Extension, or from rich benefactors has been 
accepted, though it has more than once been tentatively offered. 

The buildings in which the courses have been held include the 
High School of Practical Arts in Roxbury, the Abraham Lincoln 
School, the English High School, the Boys' Latin School, and the 
rooms of the Central Labor Union and other unions. As soon as 
a new Labor Lyceum is built in Boston, it is hoped to have accom- 
modation there for all the classes, so that the College will not need 
to be dependent on the generosity of outside bodies. 

The year's work is divided into three terms of ten weeks each : 
a Fall Term from October to December; after the Christmas 
vacation, a Winter Term from January to March; and after 
the Easter vacation, a Spring Term from April to June. Most of 
the courses run continuously through the three terms, so that there 
are really 30 consecutive meetings of each class throughout the 
year. Later on it is hoped to have a Summer Term from July to 
September. 

The courses that have usually been given include the following : 

English Composition, divided into elementary, intermediate, and 
advanced sections to meet the needs of the workers, from the for- 
eigner who is beginning to write English up to those who may be 
preparing for positions as secretaries of unions. 

Practice in Discussion, where the men and women of the 
labor movement receive training in public speaking and debating. 

Literature, studied internationally, taking up the contemporary 
writers of various nations and discussing particularly the social 
values in their writings. 

Economics, taking up various theories of the production, dis- 
tribution and consumption of wealth. 

Law, with especial reference to contracts and to labor legis- 
lation. 

[28] 



Science, Including a course In the principles of mechanics for 
machinists and a course In food chemistry for wives of wage 
earners. 

Recreation, Including gymnastics, danciiKg and other social 
activities, open free of charge to those already enrolled In some 
other class. 

The Classes meet one evening a week from 8 to lo o'clock, the 
lecture being restricted to the first hour and the second hour being 
devoted to a discussion In which the students take an equal part 
with the Instructor. In the English and discussion classes a still 
larger part of the time is given to recitation. In other courses out- 
side reading Is required and essays and written tests are handed In. 
Certificates of credit are given only when the student has fulfilled 
this work to the satisfaction of the instructor. In other words the 
desire Is not so much for large classes or for a reduplication of the 
Innumerable forums which already exist, but to maintain a certain 
quality of scholarship in the work of the students. 

The students numbered only about 170 during the first term, 
the Spring Term of 19 19, but since then the number of enrollments 
has mounted as high as 450. At first the college was meant prim- 
arily for trade unionists affiliated with the American Federation of 
Labor and members of their families, but the Boston Central Labor 
Union has now voted to open the college to all wage workers 
equally whether affiliated with the A. F. of L. or not, which will 
undoubted largely increase the total enrollment. 

The control of the college by organized labor "enlists the self- 
respect of trade unionism." The discussion method employs co- 
operative learning, "the instructors contributing their specialized 
knowledge and technique, and the students their experience, so that 
theory is kept In contact with attested practice." 

The early experience of the college showed that the purely 
theoretical or speculative courses were unpopular, and that the 
demand was primarily for courses which gave practical value. For 
example, English composition and practice in discussion drew large 
numbers. 

With Harvard, Tufts, Boston University, the Massachusetts 
Institute of Technology, Simmons and Wellesley, In the neighbor- 

[29] 



hood, with free education, given by part time, evening and extension 
courses, what was the need that called for a trade union college? 

There was "a need for adult training in academic subjects, with 
special reference to making good the deficiencies due to the cutting 
short of early schooling. The regular night schools, admirable as 
they are, are intended primarily for youngsters. The extension 
courses given by the State of Massachusetts, on the other hand, are 
intended primarily for men and women who have had at least a 
high school training. Beyond all it was a response to a call for a 
school for men and women who believed in and stood for the or- 
ganization of the labor classes." 

The Secretary of the Boston Trade Union College is Mabel 
Gillespie, 1260 Little Building, 80 Tremont Street, Boston, Mass. 

Amherst. 

Amherst College, under the joint auspices of the College and 
certain labor groups, conducts classes in Springfield, Holyoke and 
neighboring Massachusetts towns for the workers. The instruc- 
tion Is given by members of the faculty. The subjects include cur- 
rent economic problems, industrial history, English, social problems 
in modern literature, mathematics. The present is the first year 
of the plan. 

The Cooperatives. 

The Cooperative Movement conducts three New York schools. 
One is in Public School No. 63 (150 East 4th St.), one in the State 
Bank Building (5th Ave. and 115th St.), and one at 402 Stone 
Ave., Brownsville. 

Cooperative education is of two kinds. One is education on the 
subject of cooperation. The other is education by the method of 
consumers' cooperation. 

The most thorough school for the training of cooperators is 
that held annually at Superior, Wisconsin. 

A need is for the development of trained leaders among the 
working class for cooperation. One local answer to this need has 
been the eight-weeks-seminar conducted by Dr. J. P. Warbasse for 
three successive years. It was held in the Washington Irving High 

[30] 



School and in the Sage Foundation Building, of New York, under 
the joint auspices of the International Ladies' Garment Workers' 
Union and the School for Social Work. 

In the year of 1920-21, a course of 15 lectures on the history 
and technique of cooperation are being given under the auspices of 
Columbia University. In New York there will be given a series 
of six lectures for training workers in the Zionist Movement for 
cooperative enterprises in Palestine. 

The trade union colleges in various parts of the country give 
courses in cooperation. 

The educational secretary of the Cooperative League of Amer- 
ica is A. D. Warbasse. The address is 2 West 13th Street, New 
York. 

"Cooperation," the organ of the Cooperative League of Amer- 
ica, says : 

"Cooperation means .that the consumers organize to control the pro- 
duction and distribution of the educatiion which they want. This can be 
done if the students are adults and capable of knowing what they want. 
Those pioneer student bodies which are working out this method are 
doing the most radical thing that has been done in education since the 
free public school was established." 

The three cooperative schools of Greater Nev/ York (down- 
town, Harlem and Brownsville), publish a monthly paper called 
"Cooperative Education." 

The object of these New York consumers' experiments in educa- 
tion and the subject-matter place them outside the area of workers' 
education, as we have defined it. The object is largely to fit young 
people to pass Regents' and college examinations. The subject- 
matter is therefore largely, though not exclusively, that of regular 
preparatory courses. 

The method of administration is a pure form of workers' educa- 
tion. The cooperative schools are under students' control. They 
charge a tuition fee (for instance, of $5 a month for five nights a 
week of three periods). They use public and high school instruct- 
ors. The students administer all the finances. One of the schools 
has 500 pupils, another 300. 

. X [31] 



Training Executives. 

The Cooperative Central Exchange at Superior, Wisconsin, car- 
ries on a wholesale business and conducts a school for the education 
of cooperative executives. The Exchange has a membership of 
49 distributive societies. This is the second year of the training 
course, which was begun with 43 students. Most of the students 
come from Minnesota, Michigan and Wisconsin. The ages range 
from 15 to 48. Of the students of 1919, 70 per cent are now 
employed in cooperative stores. 

Cooperative "Literature." 

American cooperation has a "literature" which makes the task 
of education easier than in the political and trade union fields. 
There are excellent books on the history, theory and practice of 
cooperation. There are "45" useful pamphlets. This material 
for cooperative education is to be obtained from the Cooperative 
League of America (2 West 13th Street, New York). There is, 
for instance, the ten-cent pamphlet on "Cooperative Education — 
The Duties of the Educational Committee Defined." This pam- 
phlet is so clear and precise that it might serve as model for pub- 
lications on labor information. Good pamphleteering is one of the 
immediate needs in workers' education. 

"Cooperative societies can not be developed any faster than 
people can be trained to run them," and to support them. This 
means training of managers and executives and training of the 
whole membership. Trade unions also can not be developed any 
faster than people can be trained to run them and to take over 
progressively the functions of administration of industry. Educa- 
tion has long been accepted as essential to success in cooperation. 
Education has not been so widely accepted by trade unionists as 
essential to success in industrial democracy. 

Seattle. 

The Workers' College of Seattle, founded in 19 19, is under 
the control of the central labor council. It is housed in the Labor 
Temple and pays a nominal rent. The central labor council ap- 

[32] 



points an educational committee of 7, representing the main in- 
dustrial groups. The work is financed in several ways. There are 
collections at certain lectures. In certain courses, the pupils pay 
$2.50 a course. In other courses there are voluntary contributions 
from the pupils. A card system has also been used, calling for 
periodical contributions. 

The Sunday Evening Forum has brought an average attendance 
of 400. 

One of the instruction methods used is that of resident lecturer. 
A visitor is invited to spend a month in Seattle for the purpose of 
giving courses and lectures. 

There are courses in the trade union movement, Marx, biology, 
English, parliamentary law, the American Constitution, the Soviet 
Constitution, the program of British Labor. The course In trade 
unionism has attracted 60 students. There is no registration of 
students. 

Educational conferences are periodically held with two delegates 
from each union and one or two delegates from each class. These 
conferences have acted as an advisory committee on education to 
the central labor council, which in turn appoints its educational 
committee of 7 as the executive. 

The Workers' College has a dramatic section, which is an 
amateur dramatic society. 

The Workers' College has had the usual labor situation to meet 
— that of many local unions, some 65. This means many local 
meetings, if unified action is to be obtained. Until larger industrial 
unions are formed, each experiment in workers' education will be 
weakened by jurisdictional disputes, local jealousies, the scattering 
of effort. Until workers are organized industrially, they are not 
fully aware of the need for workers' education. In fact, there is 
not the same need in control, administration and extension of re- 
sponsibility. 

In the first year of the Workers' College, much of the teaching 
and much of the Influence came from the State University of Wash- 
ington. In the case of one or two of the professors, this teaching 
and Influence were offensive to the workers. By the year 1920-21, 
the Workers' College had emancipated Itself from the State Uni- 

[33] 



versity, and was in a position to summon its own teachers, including 
one in biology from the State University. 

The Workers' College of Seattle has stated what labor education 
seeks : 

"Education in our universities and colleges is essentially capitalistic, 
in that it glorifies competition and seeks to produce an efficient individ- 
ual. Education that may properly be called labor education is essentially 
socialistic, in that it glorifies cooperation and seeks to produce an efficient 
social and industrial order." 

The address is The Workers' College, The Labor Temple, Se- 
attle. 

Other Experiments. 

Other experiments are the Baltimore Community School (free 
tuition, independent of trade union control) ; the Chicago Workers' 
Institute. The Chicago Palatine Cooperative Union has opened 
a school. There have been the Work People's College in Smithville, 
Minn., the People's College — Fort Scott, Kansas; in San Fran- 
cisco — The People's Institute; in Los Angeles — The Labor Tem- 
ple (the educational work controlled by the Board of Education). 

Porto Rico. 

Rafael Alonso, general secretary of the Free Federation of the 
Workingmen of Porto Rico (affiliated to the A. F. of L.), has re- 
ported to us, as follows : — 

"We have no labor college. Union halls are used as conference and 
educational places. Matters relative to the history of the world labor 
movement ; efficiency in trade unions and among the workers, individual- 
ly; English and Spanish classes, are the subjects dealt with." 

The address of Rafael Alonso is in care of the Free Federation 
of the Workingmen of Porto Rico, Box 270, San Juan, Porto 
Rico. 



[34] 



Labor Education Bureau 

An attempt has been made to organize a National Bureau on 
Labor Education. A temporary committee was organized during 
the Labor Party Convention at Chicago in July, 1920. J. M. 
Budish was chosen secretary of this temporary committee. His 
address is in care of the United Labor Education Committee, 41 
Union Square, New York. There is need for such a bureau of 
labor education because experiments are being made in over a 
dozen industrial centers. These experiments are testing objects, 
methods and materials, each in its own way. Each success and each 
failure have a lesson for all the other attempts. There has been 
no pooling of this experience. To obtain information of some of 
these experiments has been impossible. Letters are not answered. 
Information, when sent, is vague. A bureau could sit on the job 
till there was a stock of facts on workers' education, checked up on 
the basis of the experience of each Institution of workers' educa- 
tion. This Information, dug up in a dozen centers, would then be 
classified and sent out to each of the labor educational organiza- 
tions. 

Wisconsin. 

The Report of the General Executive Board to the 1920 Con- 
vention of the Wisconsin State Federation of Labor stated: 

"On certain controversial subjects, such as labor history, cooperative 
and governmental enterprises, it may be found necessary, even desirable, 
that unilonists should organize their own classes and employ teachers 
whom they can trust to give them facts. 

"Labor needs organizers; it needs men trained to carry on negotia- 
tions with employers; it needs men of vision and administrative ability 
to carry out its economic and political principles. Every union man 
should be an organizer; every union man should understand the princi- 
ples and methods of collective bargaining as well as ordinary business 
methods. Every trade unionist should give some of his time to the care- 
ful study of the history of labor organizations, their mistakes and their 
victories; their methods of organization; the types of organization in 
existence today; their aims and policies, their tactics, their success or 

[35] 



lack of success. Classes of union men should be organized for this pur- 
pose in every city. 

"As the scope of labor's activities extends, there is felt the need also 
for men upon whom labor can depend to make cooperative and publicly 
owned enterprises a success. We need to train men from our own 
ranks to take the pivotal positions in industry and government. We need 
to train all labor, however, to understand the part they have to play in 
making their own ventures a success, the temporary sacrifices they may 
have to make in order ito secure the ultimate triumph of their principles." 

After recommending a study of cooperation, the Report says: 

"The second recommendation is for the establishment of a short 
course for trade unionists, which shall meet the needs of industrial labor 
as the farmers' short course meets the needs of the farmers. This course 
should provide for the training of trade unionists for their duties as 
organizers, secretaries, officials, legislative and administrative representa- 
tives, teachers in the labor movement and managers of co-operative and 
other enterprises." 

One Appeal 

It is often asked, How can we awaken interest in workers' educa- 
tion? Here follov/s the successful appeal made by James Maurer, 
President of the Pennsylvania Federation of Labor, and Abraham 
Epstein, General Secretary of the Pennsylvania Labor Education 
Committee, in advocating education for the workers : 

1. The benefits derived from such work by the British labor movement 
and how effective ithat movement a's compared with our own. 

2. Education, at the present time, is only one-sided. The schools and 
colleges of to-day present definitions of such words as "justice," 
"truth," "loyalty," "duty," "patriotism," etc., in a way that suits 
the employers of labor, and not the organized workers. All forms 
of education in existence to-day, — schools, press, churches, the mov- 
ies, etc. — are presenting this one kind of education. Instances are 
cited of teachers of long experience dismissed as soon as they identify 
themselves with organized labor. The experiences of the Inter- 
church World Movement are recalled when it attempted to present 
the truth in favor of labor in the steel mills. 

3. The emphasis of to-day is laid upon money values rather than human 

[36] 



values; the well known men in America are men of money and 
power and not the men of science, art, or social vision. 

4. Many of ithe employers have had the benefit of a college education, 
and always hire the best brains of the country to help them, but 
most wage-earners were not privileged to secure even an elementary 
school education. Benefits have been derived by organized labor 

- from connections with such men as Glenn Plumb, Jett Lauck, etc. 

5. Although the employers have had the benefit of education, they 
still feel the necessity of keeping in touch wfith new events by bring- 
ing men of prominence to itheir clubs and luncheons and having 
talks on important subjects. Thus, the employers realize the neces- 
sity for further study while labor has had neither fundamental 
education nor discussions on present day problems. 

6. Just as one can be a good American only after he knows something 
of the ideals and history of America, so, one canno't be a good trade 
union man without knowing something of the history, struggles, 
and ideals of the labor movement. 

7. There is a necessity of labor education especially at this time, when 
the struggle between capital and labor is becoming sharper; when 
an attempt is made to crush unionism altogether. Organized labor 
is spreading out into the fields of cooperation ; into banking, into 
controlling its own press, etc. 

An Outline for Education : An "Omnibus" Syllabus. 

A first need of many experiments in vi^orkers' education is that 
of an outline of present-day civilization. The student wishes to 
know about the world and his own place in it. He wishes to know 
nature and human nature, — about climate and the location of food, 
coal, iron ore, oil, rubber, copper; and how these physical features 
and natural resources react on man with his bundle of instincts. 
The student wishes to know what are the problems of to-day, and 
what intellectual tools exist for grappling with them. 

A brave attempt to make this outline of present-day civilization 
has been published by a group of Columbia instructors. It is called 
"Introduction to Contemporary Civilization — A Syllabus" (Col- 
umbia University). It Is faulty In such omissions as a proper con- 
sideration of workers' education. The suggested reading is not 
generally adapted to workers' groups (of course It does not pretend 

[37] 



to be). But the Syllabus affords a working answer to the need of 
many group leaders in labor education. 

Pioneers 

Only a handful of persons in the United States are putting their 
mind upon workers' education. Charles Beard, Harry Dana, J. 
M. Budish, Algernon Lee, Bertha Mailly, Fannia Cohn, Alexander 
Fichandler, J. B. Salutsky, David Saposs, Scott Nearing, Abraham 
Epstein, Dr. Strong, Everett Dean Martin, Juliet Stuart Poyntz, 
Frederic Howe, Thorstein Veblen, James Harvey Robinson, and 
perhaps twenty more have been doing the recent pioneering. They 
deserve reinforcement. 



[38J 



Chapter II 

BRITISH EXPERIMENTS 
Workers' Education in Britain 

The spirit of adult education has been stated by Philip Snowden: 
"I would rather have better education given to the masses of the 
working classes than the best for a few. 'O God, make no more 
giants; elevate the race.' " 

Adult education is one expression of social ferment and the de- 
sire for a better social order. Its purpose is to lift the rank and 
file and to train leaders. It is emphatically not the purpose to lift 
the workers into the middle class. 

The Need 

Under 5 per cent, of the children in the elementary schools in 
England go to a public secondary school. Less than i per cent, 
receive a university education. Not more than 50 per cent, remain 
at school till they are fourteen years old. 

An investigation into the industrial population of Sheffield show- 
ed that "of the male and female adult manual workers of Sheffield 
somewhere about one-quarter are well-equipped; approaching 
three-quarters are inadequately equipped; somewhere, about one- 
fifteenth are malequipped." 

The need of adult education is due to the failure of a national 
educational system; the failure of university extension, of evening 
school classes, of mass-lectures; and the failure of the newspapers. 

Rules 

The British experience has revealed certain principles in policy 
and rules in strategy. 

The desire for adult education must come from the workers. 
This desire can be stimulated by appeals and by successful examples. 

Controversial subjects (in economics, history and literature) 
must be included in the curriculum. "No class can afford to disre- 
gard either Marshall or Marx," says Albert Mansbridge. 

Classes, not lectures, are the method of instruction. The sec- 

[39] 



ond half of the period is devoted to rapid-fire questions by the stu- 
dents. Each student is a teacher, each teacher is a student. 

The classes are run by the students, who "approve" of the tutor, 
select subjects, and help to formulate the syllabus. There is equal- 
ity between teachers and taught, with no touch of upper-class phil- 
anthropy. 

At all points, the workers must share the control and manage- 
ment of adult education. 

The courses favor "a liberal as against a merely bread-and-butter 
education." The courses are non-vocational. The subjects selected 
by the students are economics, history, literature, natural science, 
modern languages, music, drama and art. 

WORKERS' EDUCATIONAL ASSOCIATION 

(Known as the W. E. A.) 

The W. E. A. was the resultant of many movements. These 
were Mechanics Institutes, University Extension, evening schools, 
adult schools, the People's College, the Cooperatives, Christian So- 
cialists, the settlements. It was an attempt to bring together schol- 
arship and labor. It v/as founded in 1903 by a group of trade union- 
ists, cooperators and university men. The membership of the W. 
E. A. in 1918 was 219 branches, 2,526 affiliated bodies (trade 
unions, coops, universities), and 17,136 individual members. The 
individual subscription Is one shilling a year. 

Tutorial Classes. 

The chief expression of the W. E. A. has been tutorial classes. 
These are organized by the W. E. A. and administered by Joint 
Committees, consisting of an equal number of university and 
working class representatives. The Joint Committee, aided by 
grants from the state, is the controlling authority of the tutorial 
class. The classes are financed partly by the universities, partly 
by grants from the Board of Education and local education author- 
ities. These sources have been supplemented by the Gilchrist 
Trustees and the W. E. A. 

The class chooses the subject of study and approves the tutor 

[40] 



sent by the Joint Committee. The student pledges himself to 
attend for two hours a week — one hour for the lecture, one hour 
for discussion — during tw-enty-four weeks a year for three years, 
and to write each fortnight an essay. The tutorial classes were 
started in 1907. In eleven years, 8,000 students had entered the 
classes. In 1918-19 there were 152 classes, with 3,799 students. 

Cost. 

The Board of Education gives £45 a class for each of three 
years. The Oxford Committee held that a tutor could undertake 
five classes, and pays £80 a class, or £400 a year for full work. 
Cambridge pays £72 a class. London pays £60. There are twenty- 
three universities and colleges interested. The fee paid by a mem- 
ber of a tutorial class averages 2 shillings 6 pence for twenty-four 
meetings. The universities were to be responsible for one half the 
tutor's salaries and travelling expenses. Oxford has met this. Else- 
where less than one half. The universities are putting up £5,000 
a year. Local authorities give £2,000 a year. 

Of 303 students in the Oxford classes in 19 17-18 fifty-three were 
trade union officials, twenty-Uve "coop" officers, eleven on local 
government boards. A class must not contain more than "about 
thirty" students. 

An analysis of contribution to tutorial classes for 1908-13 shows : 

From universities £17,440 

Board of Education £12,000 

Local education authorities £ 6,100 

Other sources (Gilchrist Trustees, Co- 
operative unions, Trades L'nion Con- 
gress, W. E. A.) £ 2,000 



(at $4. 80 to £, this is $180,192) 



£37.540 



The contribution from the Board of Education is now based on 
a block grant of £45 a class. This means nearly £7,000 a year. 

[41] 



Books. 

So far as their means will allow the students purchase their own 
books. "Generally It is found possible to arrange that one text- 
book of moderate price should be possessed by every student; for 
instance, in many classes all the students had Tov/nsend Warner's 
"Industrial History of England." In every class copies of the 
principal books necessary are provided. It is usual for the uni- 
versity to which the course is attached to send to the centre a box 
of books. In addition to this there are available at some centres 
those books which are in the public library. It is much to be re- 
gretted that free libraries do not seem, at any rate in many cases, 
adequately to meet the demand." 

The W. E. A. has a central library of fair size, equipped to 
supply some of the books required. 

Attendance. 

The proportion of attendances made to attendances possible is 
usually 75 % or over. The average composition of a class is twenty- 
five. Of 3,800 in attendance, about 2,100 are men and 1,700 
women. There is no certificate, no examination (except the fort- 
nightly essay), no formality. Freedom of discussion is funda- 
mental. 

Effect on Teachers and Students. 

How adult workers can benefit a teacher and his teaching is 
revealed in R. H. Tawney's "Agrarian Problem of the Sixteenth 
Century," and Henry Clay's "Economics" — "both of them based 
on lectures given in tutorial classes." 

After an investigation, A. L. Smith of Balliol College wrote : 

"Twenty-five per cent of the essays examined by him after second 
year's work in two classes, and first year's work in six classes, were equal 
to the work done by students who gained first classes in the Final Schools 
of Modern History. He was astonished, not so much at the quality as 
at the quantity of the quality of the work done." 

[42] 



The group of persons around Arnold Freeman, who made the 
Study of Sheffield, state : 

"The W. E. A. reaches out directly to no workers except those who 
belong ito the well-equipped class, and only to the best of these." 

One of the founders of the W. E. A. (Mansbrldge) says: 

"Such efforts are not worth undertaking unless they can be main- 
tained for the first year on a pound or two. All movements ought to 
be small and poor at the commencement." 

He adds that large and successful meetings at the beginning 
are bad. A small, keen, critical group is best in organizing the 
work. 

One of the useful results of the W. E. A. has been in developing 
the social consciousness of Oxford, Cambridge, and the modern 
universities. As the result, there Is less bitterness In the feeling of 
che workers towards the universities, and less arrogance In the 
mind of scholars towards the labor movement. 

Also, by 1 9 13, it could be said, "In the coming discussion In the 
country on the future of national education, over 5,000 well trained 
working men and women will take their part." 

The tutorial classes of the W. E. A. were the first whole-hearted 
recognition of Adult Education. 



A Class. 

In the famous pamphlet "Education and the Working Class" It 
Is recalled that Erasmus came to England to meet his fellow- 
scholars. He visited the two great universities of Oxford and 
Cambridge. If he came again to-day, he would go to the Potteries, 
to the heart of the industrial district, and to the working class. 

"In one of the Five Towns there Is a block of school buildings oc- 
cupying a vacant plot by the side of a factory. Four great ovens, like 
giant champagne bottles, overlook the premises, and seem to leer wicked- 
ly into the playground. When Erasmus visits it at night, one of the 
rooms is still lighted. Some twenty-five men and women are gathered 

[43] 



there, of various ages and trades, but predominantly of the working 
class. They have come together, he is .told, for a university tutorial 
class in philosophy, which meets from 8 to lO. But they have come 
early; for it is not merely a class, but a club and a college; several of 
them are anxious, too, to have a private word with the tutor. The 
tutor, he learns, is an Oxford graduate with a good honours degree in 
his subject, but, if he talks to him, he will find that he has learnt most 
of hiis philosophy in discussions with working people. For of the two 
hours of a tutorial class, the first only is used for exposition; the second 
is sacred ito discussion. So that a class consists, as has been said, not of 
twenty-five students and a tutor, but of twenty-six students who learn 
together. There is also a library in the room of some fifty or sixty 
volumes bearing on the subject; at least, the box is there, but the books 
are almost all in use. But the class, which is a democratiic organism, 
has its own elected librarian and secretary, and from them he can learn 
all that he wishes to know. He will find that the books are not only 
diligently read, but form a basis for essays which are a regular part of 
the class work. He will discover how various and vexatious are the 
obstacles that industrial life sets in the way of this new type of university 
student — the ravages of overtime, .the anxieties of unemployment, the 
suspicions of foremen and managers, the difficulties of obtaining quiet 
for reading and writing. He will hear of one student, nearly blind, 
who came regularly to class and made pathetic attempts to do his paper- 
work in large letters on a sheet of wallpaper; of another who found it 
quietest to go early to bed and rise again after midnight for an hour 
or itwo of study; of another who, joining a class at sixty-nine, attended 
regularly for six years until the very week of his death. And in the 
discussion, if he stays for it, he will hear the old problems of philosophy 
first raised in Plato (who is still used as a text-book) thrashed out anew 
from the living experience of grown men and women." 

RUSKIN COLLEGE 

In 1899 Ruskin College was established by three Americans — 
Mr. and Mrs. Walter Vrooman and Charles Beard. The Gov- 
erning Body was constituted of university men and trade union 
leaders. The location of Ruskin College Is Oxford. Its purpose 
Is the provision of education for adult members of the working 
class In history, economics, political science, literature, and other 
branches of the social sciences. It seeks to offer "a training In sub- 
jects which are essential for working class leadership." 

[44] 



Attendance. 

Six hundred students have passed through the college in one and 
two year courses. There are accommodations for fifty a year. 
More than 10,000 have carried on the correspondence courses. 

Cost. 

The fees charged are £52 a year for a college year of forty- 
four weeks. The trade unions contribute £750 a year to Ruskin. 
Ruskin College requires an income of £4,000 a year. It has re- 
cently appealed to the public for an endowment of £76,000. The 
appeal is signed by such well-known members of the community as 
Arthur Balfour, Sir Auckland Geddes, David Lloyd George, Sir 
Robert Home, and Violet Markham. 

Doubts. 

In 1909 certain of the students, led by George Sims, and Frank 
Hodges, "revolted," and established the Central Labor College 
(now the Labor College). They believed that Ruskin was im- 
bibing university atmosphere, instead of steering a working class 
revolutionary movement. 

In 19 10, Ruskin was reorganized, and the administration was 
placed in the hands of working class representatives, with three 
consultative members. 

The location at Oxford, and the fact that individual subscrip- 
tions are necessary to its maintenance, have created a "feeling" 
against Ruskin in the mind of the "left" of labor. But thoroughly 
representative leaders of the "right" are on the governing council 
— such men as James Sexton, Ben Tillett and Robert Young. 

LABOR COLLEGE 

The sub-warden says : 

"The Labor College teaches the workman ^to look for the causes of 
social evils in the material foundation of society; that these causes are 
economic; that their elimination involves economic changes of such a 
character as to lead to the eradication of capitalist economy." 

[45] 



The instruction is based largely upon the teachings of Karl 
Marx. 



Control. 

The college is based upon the recognition of the antagonism of 
interests between capital and labor. The Labor College is owned 
and controlled by the Board of labor organizations, establishing 
scholarships. There are three persons on the Board from the 
South Wales Miners' Federation, and three from the National 
Union of Railwaymen. The college costs £3,200 a year, and the 
income comes from scholarship fees raised by the unions. The 
cost of a scholarship is £100 a year. The students are sent, in 
most cases, for a period of two years. 

Attendance. 

The Labor College (which is situated in London) had in 1920 
twenty-nine residential students. 

One thousand students attend the local lecture courses, which are 
classes held in South Wales, Lancashire, Northumberland, Dur- 
ham, and industrial centres. There are correspondence courses 
and lectures by post. All told, the Labor College reaches six 
thousand students a year. 

In 1908, the Plebs League was formed of ex-students and sup- 
porters. 

In 1909, came the revolt from Ruskin. For two years the 
college remained in Oxford. 

In 191 1, it moved to London. 

The Plebs League continues "to further the interests of inde- 
pendent working-class education as a partisan effort to improve 
the position of labor at present, and ultimately to assist in the 
abolition of wage-slavery." 

One of the promoters of the Plebs League and of the Labor 
College is J. F. Horrabin, who prepared the maps for H. G. Wells's 
"The Outline of History." 

Two of the famous graduates of the Labor College are Frank 
Hodges, Secretary of the Miners Federation of Great Britain, and 

[46] 



Concemore Thomas Cramp, industrial prganizer of the National 
Union of Railwayman. 

Plans are under way to increase residential facilities so that 70 
students can be accommodated. The miners and railwaymen have 
authorized an expenditure of $100,000 (£21,000). 

A compliment from a hostile source to the efficacy of the Labor 
College is that of the London Times of October 7, 1919: 

"The influential men (in strikes) are not even Bolshevists. They 
are middle-class intellectuals and workmen who have been through one 
or other of the labor colleges, where they have imbibed theories about the 
social and industrial order which seem to them perfectly true and wise 
because they do not know enough to detect the fallacies. These men who 
are young, arc most numerous among the railwaymen and miners, and 
this is the chief reason why these industries are the special, though not 
the only, hot beds of disorder." 

SUMMARY 

A Government Final Report on Adult Education was made 
under the Ministry of Reconstruction. The Committee included 
the Master of Balliol, Ernest Bevin, the docker, Cramp, head of 
the railwaymen, Frank Hodges, and R. H. Tawney. Let us trans- 
late that into American terms, and we shall have Prof. Charles 
Beard, Sidney Hillman, Prof. Edward Ross, John Fitzpatrick, 
James Duncan of Seattle, President Lowell. This Government 
Adult Education Committee states concerning such institutions as 
the Marxian Labor College : 

"The state should not, in our opinion, refuse financial support to in- 
stitutions, colleges and classes, merely on the ground that they have a 
particular 'atmosphere' or appeal specially to students of this type or that. 
All that it ought to ask is that they be concerned with serious study." 

"The basis of discrimination between education and propaganda is 
not the particular opinions held by the teachers or the students, but the 
intellectual competence and quality of the former and the seriousness 
and continuity of study of the latter," 

Technical vocational education is not the chief business of adult 

[47] 



education. The Committee says : — 

"Technical education is conceived as a means of improving economic 
efficiency in the interests of private gain. Technical education must al- 
ways be a necessary and important part of a national system of education ; 
but, unlike general or humane education, it is not a universal need. Until 
industry is clearly conceived as a vast organization of cooperative effort, 
one of the essentials of a sound system of technical education is lacking." 

An Interim Report of the British Adult Education Committee 
says : 

"We wish to emphasize our view that the development of education 
among children and adolescents, so far from superseding the need for 
educational opportunities for adults, will lend additional emphasis to it." 



[48] 



Chapter III 

BELGIAN WORKERS' EDUCATION 

The Belgian Central Board for Workers' Education was founded 
in 191 1. It is one third endowed, and two thirds supported by 
labor contributions. The Board is made up of representatives of 
the Labor Party, the labor unions and the cooperative societies. 
It exists to stimulate local effort. It induces labor organizations 
to use their own money for educational work. Its purpose is, ac- 
cording to its own constitution, to develop and coordinate all in- 
stitutions that aim at "providing the workers with such knowledge 
and qualities as will facilitate their emancipation as a class in every 
field." 

Among the many enterprises of the Board, it is successfully 
working out a labor school system. This applies to the three 
groups of workers (defined in the opening pages of this pamphlet) 
by elementary local schools with cycles of lecture-lessons, district 
schools, and higher national schools. The national schools are 
specialized into trade union, cooperative, socialist, political, a 
school for municipal councillors, and so on. 

This Belgian experiment is thus in its beginnings more system- 
atized than the older British experiment. It recognizes more 
frankly the differences in the capacity of the students. On the other 
hand it has not had the long test of the British practice. An ad- 
mirable account of the Belgian experiment was given by Dr. Henry 
de Man, the Belgian labor leader, director of the Belgian Board 
of Labor Education, in the Survey for September i, 1920. His 
summary is so well done and so important ^hat it would be an act 
of impertinence to rewrite or shorten it. The title of his article 
is "How Belgian Labor is Educating Itself." Elsewhere he has 
stated what labor education means in the following way: 

"When labor strikes, it says to its master: I shall no longer work at 
your command. When it votes for a party of its own it says: I shall 
no longer vote at your command. When it creates its own classes and 
colleges, it says: I shall no longer think at your command. Labor's 
challenge to education is the most fundamental of the three." 

[49] 



GERMAN EXPERIMENTS 

For many years Germany has carried on workers' education. 
Among those educational activities, there have been: — 

1. The National Education Committee, of the Social Democratic Par- 
ty. This is now hopelessly split. 

2. The Party Schools, run by the executive of the Social Democratic 
Party. This work is described in a series of Congress Reports from 
1906 on. These reports are full of valuable material on workers' 
education. These Party Schools have been wrecked by the war. 

3. The school for trade union officials. This still goes on. This Ber- 
lin school is supported and managed by trade unionists. The school 
provides a six weeks' course of instruction to about 60 selected trade 
unionists, who are fully supported during this period by their unions. 



[50] 



PUBLISHED INFORMATION 

Those Interested in the American and British experiments should 
consult the valuable bulletin entitled 'Adult Working Class Educa- 
tion in Great Britain and the United States," by Charles P. 
Sweeney. It is published by the U. S. Department of Labor, 
Bureau of Labor Statistics. This bulletin is the best summary of 
the American work which has been published. 

The folk high schools of Scandinavian countries and of Den- 
mark, in particular, are of such importance to the student of work- 
ers' education that attention is drawn to a series of United States 
Government bulletins on the subject (1898, 1909, 1912, 1914, 
19 1 9 — the years of publication). Special attention is drawn to 
Bulletin No. 45, of the year 19 15, Department of the Interior, Bu- 
reau of Education. This bulletin is entitled "The Danish People's 
High School," by Martin Hegland. 

A bibliography on workers' education is given at the end of the 
present pamphlet. 



[51] 



WHAT TO READ 

A Bibliography on Workers' Education. * 

LABOR COLLEGES 

Belgium 

Man, Henry de — How Belgian Labor is Educating Itself. (In Survey, N. 
Y., V. 44, p. 667-70, Sept. I, 1920.) 

Great Britain 

Central Labour College. (In Labour Year Book. 1919. p. 294-295.) 

History of movement, origin as a revolt against conservatism of Ruskin 
College. Supported by miners' and railway unions and backed by Plebs 
League. 

Cole, G. D. H. — Labour and Education. (In Labour and the Common- 
ivealth. 1920. p. 147-165.) 

— Proletarianism. (In Labour and the Commonwealth. 1920. p. 166- 
178.) 

— Trade Unionism and Education. (In Workers' Educational Ass'n, JV. 

E. A. Education Year Book. 1918. p. 370-373.) 

Traces history of C. L. C, the quarrel with Ruskin College, the guardian- 
ship of the C. L. C. by South Wales Miners' Federation and National Union 
of Railwaymen. The C. L. C. is "aggressively Marxian." Outline of edu- 
cational policy for trade unions. 

Education and the Working Class. London, Workers' Educational Ass'n. 
1914, 25 p. 
A statement of objective reprinted from the Round Table of March 1914. 

Educational Programmes. (In Labour Year Book. 1919. p. 288-298.) 
Summaries of organization and work of the several British labor colleges. 

Great Britain Adult Education Committee — Final Report. London, H. M. 
stationery office. 191 9. 409 p. (Cd. 321.) 

Contains inclusive account of trade union education in Great Britain and the 
United States, covering most of the colleges established. 

Horrabin, J. F. — Plebs League. (In Workers' Educaitional Ass'n, W. E. A. 

Year Book. 1918. p. 390-391.) 

Break of the C. L. C. with Ruskin College, and formation of Plebs League 
to back the work of C. L. C. 

Horwill, H. W. — Education of the Adult Worker. (In Nation, N. Y., 
V. 109, p. 738-739, May 10, 1919.) 



* From "Modern Social Movements," by Savel Zimand, to be published by 
H. W. Wilson Co. 

[52] 



Mansbridge, Albert — Universities and Labor; an Educational Adventure in 
England and Her Overseas Dominions. (In Atlantic Monthly, 
Boston. V. 124. p. 275-282. August 1919.) 

A review of the organization, the work, and the cooperation of university 
instructors with the workers' organizations. 

University Tutorial Classes ; A Study in the Development of Higher Educa- 
tion Among Working Men and Women. N. Y., Longmans, Green 
and Co. 1918. 197 p. 
The fullest summary on the subject. 

Smith, Samuel — Ruskin College, Oxford. (In Workers' Educational Ass'n, 
fV. E. A. Education Year Book. 191 8. p. 388-389.) 
Foundation, support, and government by trade union and cooperative union 
representatives. Courses, scholarship, publications, etc. 

Workers' Educational Association — Annual Report and Statement of Ac- 
counts; Fifteenth. July i, 1918. London, W. E. A., 1918. 32 p. 

Plans for educational reconstruction, classes, summer schools, libraries, liter- 
ature and directory of branches in Great Britain and the colonies, including 
a branch in Montreal at McGill University. 

Workers' Educational Assooiation — The W. E. A. Education Year Book, 
1 91 8. London, Workers' Educational Association, N. Y., Ginn & 
Co., 1 91 8. 507 p. 

Complete account of workingmen's education in Great Britain. Introduction 
by G. B. Shaw, contributions by S. G. Hobson, G. D. H. Cole, H. G. Wells, 
John Galsworthy and others, covering the history and teaching methods of 
the W. E. A. 

World Association for Adult Education, London. University Tutorial Class 
Movement. London. 191 9. (Bui. 2.) 30 p. 

Great Britain — Directory 

Labour College (Until recently Central Labour College). Sec'y T. Lovvth, 
Unity House, Euston Road, N.W. i. London, England. 

Plebs League. (Graduates and students of Labour College.) Mrs. W. 
Horrabin, iia Penywern Road, Earl's Court, London, S.W. 5. 

Ruskin College, Oxford, Secretary Sam Smith, Ruskin College, Oxford, 
England. 

Workers' Educational Association. General Secretary Mr. J. M. Mactavish, 
16 Harput St., London, W.C. i. 

United States 
American Federation of Labor. Committee on Schools Under Union Aus- 

[53] 



pices. Report. (In American Federation of Labor. Rept. of Proc, 
39th. Washington, D. C, 1919. p. 135-144.) 

Boston Trade Union College. (In School and Society. Garrison, N. Y. 
V. 9, p. 443-444, Apr. 12, 1919.) 

Budish, J. M.— Education and Culture Within Reach of Our Workers. (In 
Fur Worker, N. Y. Sept. 1919.) Reprinted in N. Y. Call. 

Budish, J. M., and George Soule — United Labor Education Committee. (In 

their New Unionism in the Clothing Industry, N. Y. Harcourt, Brace 

and Howe, 1920. p. 205-228.) 

Adequate account of the educational work of the unions in the clothing in- 
dustry. 

Chicago Trade Union College. (In School and Society. Garrison, N. Y. 
V. 10, p. 516. Nov. I, 1919.) 

Education for Workers. (In Survey, N. Y. v. 43, p. 437. Jan. 17, 1920.) 
Brief review of work of Trade Union College of Boston, of Chicago, and 
International Ladies' Garment Workers' Union Educational Committee. 

Fox, G. M.— When Labor Goes to School. N. Y., Nat'l Board Y. W. C. 
A., 1920. 30 p. 

Labor College at Nation's Capitol. (In Labor, Wash. v. i, no. 11, p. i. 
Oct. 18, 1919.) 

Note on founding of labor college for union members. Instructors drawn 
from executives and experts in government departments. 

Labor Education. (In American Labor Year Book. v. 3, 1919-20. p. 
203-206.) 

Articles on the United Labor Education Committee, the International Ladies' 
Garment Workers' Union, and the Boston Trade Union College. 

Labor in Quest of Beauty. (In Survey, N. Y. v. 42, p. 199. May 3, 191 9.) 

Sterling, H.— Labor's Attitude Toward Education. (In School and Society. 
Garrison, N. Y. v. 10, p. 128-32. Aug. 2, 1919.) 

Stoddard, W. L.— Boston Trade Union College. (In Nation, N. Y. v. 
109, p. 298-300. Aug. 30, 1919.) 

Sweeney, Charles Patrick— Adult Working-Class Education in Great Britain 
and the United States. Wash., Gov't Print. Oil., 1920. (U. S. 
Labor Statistics Bureau, Bull. 271.) loi p. 

Sweeney, Charles Patrick— Labor Goes to College. (In Independent, N. Y. 
V. 98, p. 216. May 10, 1919.) 

Trade Union College. (In Am/;rican Review of Reviews, N. Y. v. 60, p. 
441-442. Oct. 1919.) 

[54] 



Trade Union College. (In New Republic, N. Y. v. i8, p. 395. Apr. 26, 
1919.) 

Trade Union College. (In Survey, N. Y. v. 42, p. 113-114- Apr. 19, 
1919.) 

Workers' Education ; A Symposium. Reprinted from the Shipbuilders' News 
and Navy Yard Employees for Sept., 1919, by the Industrial Com- 
mittee of the Department of Research and Method of the National 
Board of the Y. W. C. A., 1920. 11 p. 

Contents: Dana, H. W. L. Boston Trade Union College. 
Beard, C. A. New School for Social Research. 
Budish, J. M. United Labor Education Committee. 
Poyntz, J. S. Workers' University. 
Tannenbaum, Frank. Labor and Education. 
Cady, M. L. Workers' Education and the Young Women's 
Christian Association. 

United States — Directory 

Amalgamated Clothing Workers of America. National Educational Depart- 
ment. J. B. Salutsky, Educational Director, 31 Union Square, New 
York City. 

International Ladies' Garment Workers' Union, Educational Committee, 31 
Union Square, New York City. 

Pennsylvania Labor Education Committee. Abraham Epstein, Secretary, P. 
O. Box 662. Harrisburg, Pa. 

Rand School of Social Science, 7 East 15th Street, New York City. 

Trade Union College of Boston, Miss Mabel Gillespie, Secretary, 80 
Tremont Street, Boston, Mass. 

Trade Union College of Washington, D. C, care of the National Federation 
of Federal Employees. Continental Trust Building, Washington. 

United Garment Workers' Union, Los Angeles, Calif. Educational Com- 
mittee. Labor Temple, Los Angeles. Calif. 

United Labor Education Committee. J. M. Budish, chairman. 41 Union 
Square, New York City. 

Women's Trade Union League of Chicago, 111. Chicago Federation of 
. Labor. Educational Council. Chicago, 111. 

Workers' College, Seattle, Washington. Labor Temple, Seattle, Wash. 

Workers' University. International Ladies' Garment Workers' Union, 
Cleveland, Ohio. 

[55] 



Sample Courses 



The Trade Union College of Washington, D. C. 



Course of Lectures on Democratic 
Control of Industry 

(i) Employees' Representation in Management of 
Industry. 

(2) Shop Committees Under the National War Labor 
Board. 

(3) Types of Shop Committee Plans in American In- 
dustrial Establishments. 

(4) Industrial Reconstruction in the Army Arsenals. 

(5) The Plumb Plan for the Railroads. 

(6) Whitley Councils in British Industries. 

(7) Building Trades' Parliament in England. 

(8) Proposals for Nationalization and Joint Control 
of the Coal Mines in Great Britain. 

(9) Tripartite Control of Industry. 

(10) The National Guilds Movement in Great Britain. 



[56] 



SEATTLE WORKERS' COLLEGE 

Syllabus of a course of 5 lectures on PROBLEMS OF THE 
LABOR MOVEMENT, by Henry de Man 

I. The Working Class. 

The foundation of labor's understanding of society is its under- 
standing of its own movement. The history of the labor move- 
ment reflects the condition and evolution of the workers' class or 
proletariat under the capitalist system. 

Definition of the proletariat by Frederick Engels : "The class 
of wage-workers who, having no means of production of their own, 
are reduced to selling their labor power in order to live." 

Current misconceptions about class formation in general to be 
removed : 

1. Not due to distinction between manual and intellectual 
labor, examples: brainworkers for a wage, small employers of 
labor doing manual labor, the independent farmer, the small in- 
dependent tradesman, etc. 

2. Not due to distinction between producers and non-producers, 
examples: the independent farmer (not a proletarian) the capi- 
talist-manager, etc. 

3. Not due to degree of Income, examples : the poor independ- 
ent farmer, the parasite pauper class ("Lumpenproletariat"), the 
poor small tradesman, not proletarians. 

Class formation determined not by degree of Income, but by Its 
nature. A class Is a group unified by a community of Interest In 
antagonism to other groups, arising from the social nature of their 
function In the production process. 

Main characteristic of proletariat — separation from the means 
of production. In this the proletarian Is different from: 

1. the slave — owned as a means of production himself 

2. the serf — tied to the soil, chief means of production 

3. the artisan — owner of his own means of production. 

[57] 



The proletariat came Into existence by advancing capitalism 
(especially capital accumulated in commerce) expropriating serfs 
and artisans (separating them from means of production). 

The oldest form of capitalistic expropriation is the manufactur- 
ing shop, employing largely unskilled workers, mostly destitute 
(expropriated serfs, vagrant workers, disbanded soldiers, etc.) 

The expropriation of the artisan chiefly resulted from competi- 
tion by the large capitalistic shop using mechanical power. 

Hence modern European proletariat is drawn from two sources : 

I. the class of unskilled factory workers, 2. the class of expropri- 
ated artisans or craftsmen. 

This distinction is now practically levelled out by progress of 
machinery. In America it has maintained itself longer, owing 
chiefly to the constant immigration of foreign unskilled immigrants 
facilitating the maintenance of a privileged position by the native 
craftsmen. 

Textbooks : 

Karl Kautsky, The Class Struggle K. Marx, Capital, Part i 

K. Marx and F. Engels, The Communist Manifesto, Part i 

A. M. Simons, Class Struggles In America 

II. The European Trade Union Movement. 

General tendency. The unskilled factory workers of the early 
capitalistic period conduct chaotic movements, but do not succeed 
in forming permanent unions. The first nucleus of the union move- 
ment Is formed by the craftsmen's associations, favored by the 
traditions of the artisan guild system and the limited competition 
of labor in skilled trades. 

The oldest form of craft union is the closed union. Its aim to 
maintain favorable labor conditions by preventing the employers 
from hiring labor at non-union conditions. Its action Is directed: 
I. against the reluctant employer; 2. against the competition of 
an economically weaker labor element. 

[58] 



Characteristics of the closed union policy: \ 

1. High entrance fees 

2. Regulation of apprenticeship to monopolize skill by: 

a. Limitation of numbers 

b. Privileges to relatives 

c. Long duration 

d. High cost of initiation 

e. Obligation to learn the whole trade 

3. Exclusion of women and youths 

4. Exclusion of foreigners 

5. Favoring of fair employers by boycott and label 

6. Opposition to use or extension of machinery 

Chief policy of closed unions: 

1. The union as an employment office 

2. Job monopoly for limited number of organized 

3. Fostering of craft solidarity by masonic practices 

Trade egoism illustrated by pitched battles among the early 
French "compagnonnages" (1830-1860): 

1. Conquest of the right of coalition 

2. Demonstration of power of organization 

3. Formation of a nucleus for class movement (organization, 

finance leadership) 

4. Prevention of total degradation of working class by low 

wages 

5. Pioneer work in reducing hours of labor 

The entrance of the unskilled workers into the union movement 
marks its transformation into a class movement. This happened 

[59] 



earlier on the European continent than in England, in spite of less 
advanced industrialization, because of class consciousness fostered 
by political activity of socialist parties. 

Illustrations : 

1. The new unionism in England, typical of unconscious slow 

evolution 

2. The industrial unions of Germany, typical of conscious 

rapid evolution 

The breakdown of European craft unionism caused or favored 
by: I. the extension of mechanical production and semi-skilled 
labor; 2. the increased competition of unskilled unorganized work- 
ers; 3. the growing social power of capitalism in basic industries 
(coal, steel, oil, textiles, automobiles, chemical industries, etc.) 
employing unskilled or semi-skilled labor ; 4. the increasing neces- 
sity of defensive political action as a class to maintain liberties 
necessary for organization work; 5. the social emancipation of 
women; 6. the internationalization of labor supply resulting from 
improved means of communication; 7. concentration of employers' 
forces by financial capitalism; 8. the rank and file revolts against 
craft union officialdom; 9. the waste of jurisdictional disputes; 
10. the increase of industrial productivity and the suspension of 
craft union limitations under the stress of war necessity. 

Textbooks : 

B. and S. Webb, The History of Trade Unionism 

Carleton Parker, The Casual Laborer 

-W. Z. Foster, The Great Steel Strike 



[60] 



NATIONAL WOMEN'S TRADE UNION LEAGUE 

OF AMERICA. 

(Outline and cost of three weeks' course in Chicago for women 

trade unionists.) 

9 a. m. to lo a. m. — ^History of the Labor movement. 

(Alice Henry, Secretary of the Educational Department, and 
Emma Steghagen.) 

10 a.m. to II a.m. — How an Organizer Works. 

(Agnes Nestor, Elizabeth Maloney, Elizabeth Christman, and 
other experienced Trade Union women.) 

11 a.m. to 12 m. — Business English, including letter writing to 

organizations, drafting resolutions. 

(Miss Henry.) 

Two evenings a week — Parliamentary law and the conduct of 
meetings. 

The afternoons are reserved for study. 

For out-of-town trade unionists the estimate of expense: 

Room at $5.00 $15.00 

Board at $10,50 31.50 

Carfare at $1.25 3,75 

Sundries, $1.25 3.75 

$54.00 

Books (estimate) $7.50 

Parliamentary Law (estimate) . . . 7,50 
Sundries 6.00 

$75.00 
For those living in Chicago, the cost is $15. 

[61] 



THE BUREAU OF INDUSTRIAL RESEARCH, 

289 Fourth Ave., New York, is organized to promote 
sound human relationships in industry by consultation, 
fact studies and publicity. 

It maintains a library of current information covering 
the field of industrial relations from which it is prepared 
to supply documentary and statistical data at moderate 
cost to individuals, corporations, labor organizations and 
the press. 

Robert W. Bruere^ Director 

Heber Blankenhorn Leonard Outhwaite 

Mary D. Blankenhorn Ordway Tead 

Arthur Gleason Savel Zimand 

Herbert Croly, Treasurer 



[62] 



^,y 



LIBRARY OF CONGRESS 



029 942 018 8 



